Acceptable Clones? Perhaps passed through Gordon?

I'm not looking to port it to a different chip

why not, it is a nice idea, I think you should go for it.

I didn't expect people to disregard the idea that close neighbor watches could have a plugin to get closer compatibility and not have to maintain a fork.

Looks like you give your own meaning to the term 'plugin' just like with 'clone'. So far it is just a lot of hand waving.

Perhaps it could start with jeffmer watches and see what it would take to just have an 'enablement' plugin instead of a fork?

Good idea, and at some point you may also check that topic suggested in post #2, it may be related.